Italian Premier: “Better To Be Passionate About A Beautiful Girl Than A Gay”

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is under attack Tuesday, the Associated Press reporting there are calls for his resignation after it was revealed that he took custody in May of a then 17 year old Moroccan girl nicknamed Ruby, who had been detained by police for alleged theft, and that the two began an affair. Adding to the awkwardness, Berlusconi, offering a supposed defence, told an audience at a trade fair in Milan that is was “better to be passionate about a beautiful girl than a gay.” Italy’s largest gay rights advocacy group Arcigay has demanded an immediate apology, President Paolo Pantane writing Berlusconi’s minister for equal opportunity, Mara Carfagna, that the comments “represent a dangerous incitement to prejudice and helps legitimise discrimination, injustice and suffering.” Carfagna replied that the premier “absolutely never intended to offend women or homosexuals.” The girl in question, Ruby, has yet to comment.